Former Advisor to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and noted journalist Sanjaya Baru will be the next secretary general of Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci). He will take charge of office on September 1.

Dr Baru will replace incumbent A Didar Singh who is due to retire after serving in the post for nearly five years.

He is currently direct for Geo-Economic and Strategy at the International Institute of Strategic Studies.

Dr Baru has held top positions in print media. He was chief editor to the national business daily Financial Express during 2000-04. Later, he also headed Business Standard from 2009 and 2011.

Earlier, he also worked with the Times of India and the Economic Times.

He has also been a visiting professor to Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and Institute of South Asian Studies, Singapore.

He has also been member to the expert group on Indian National Defence University and to the National Security Advisory Board, India.

“The Accidental Prime Minister: The Making and Unmaking of Manmohan Singh”, Baru’s 2014 memoir of his time as media adviser to the then prime minister from May 2004 to August 2008, had raised a lot of political controversy, forcing the Prime Minister’s Office to furnish clarifications. The book proved a best seller.

Dr Baru’s other works include “Strategic Consequences of India’s Economic Performance” (2006) and “India and the World: Essays on Geo-economics and Foreign Policy” (2017).

“Strategic Consequences of India’s Economic Performance” is an intellectual presentation of the evolution of Indian economy and global politics. It presents the trends in the global economics and discusses several issues related to the latest shape of economic-policies, social progress and future of the nuclear resources. How the trends in economy have dealt with the complex challenges of the country are precisely and convincingly written in the book.

“India and the World: Essays on Geo-economics and Foreign Policy” explores India’s evolving geo-economic relations with the West and with Asia, particularly China, in the aftermath of the global financial crisis of 2008-09. These essays analyse the influence of business and trade on foreign policy, India’s approach to multilateralism and the relevance of regional trade integration for the Indian economy and South Asia.